Lieutenant-Colonel John Graham Dooner and Captain Edwin Claud Toke Dooner
/The Dooner Memorial is situated on the south wall of the Lady Chapel.
Inscription reads:
To the glory of God
and in Loving memory
of
LIEUT COL. JOHN GRAHAM DOONER D.S.O.
Royal Field Artillery, General Staff Officer 34th Division, killed at Grand Rozoy near Soissons
CAPTAIN ALFED EDWIN CLAUD TOKE DOONER
Adjutent 1st Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers a bandvoorde
Ypres
The second and third sons of Colonel and Mes W Toke Dooner
Kirtatis Glenis Momy
Virtutis Gloria Merces - Glory, the Reward of Valour.
Captain Alfred Edwin Claud Toke Dooner, Royal Welch Fusiliers, was educated at the King's School, Rochester.
His name also appears on the School War Memorial, which is in the Lady Chapel. An annual prize to his memory is presented on Speech Day for English Literature.
Alfred Dooner was commissioned into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers In 1911. He became captain and adjutant of the lot Battalion in 1914. The lat, and and. Battalions of the Royal Welch Fusiliers formed part of the British Expeditionary Force under Sir John Prench, which bore the brunt of the Initial attack by the German Army in Its thrust through Belgium in 1914.
Colonel William Toke Dooner J.P. (a former mayor of Rochester) he father of the two of icorn, lived at southsate, the Precinct Boley Hill.
Alfred Edwin Claude Toke Dooner
Dooner is best remembered by all ORs (and Roffensians) due to the Claude Toke Dooner prizes awarded each year on Speech Day. Very few, I am sure will know who Dooner was. Dooner joined the School in 1902 and stayed for four years, leaving in 1905. After leaving KS he joined Tonbridge School where he stayed until 1910. He went straight from school to the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich from where he joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in 1911. Being a regular soldier he was one of the first over to France and Flanders and thus was involved in some of the early actions of 1914. It was in the frantic defence of a little known city somewhere in the middle of Flanders that he died, a city that was to become well known to nearly all British soldiers and certainly to every Englishman of the time, the City of Ypres. The dogged struggle for Ypres that lasted over four years typified all that was best in the English 'Tommy', and many of 'the best' are buried in the fields of Ypres today. Their graves are cared for today by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and are visited by many as they pass through what was the Ypres Salient. A tablet was erected in his memory in the School's Chapel in the Cathedral, incorporated on that Memorial are the details of his brother also killed during the Great War, however, his brother (a winner of the DSO) did not attend KSR.
The story of the struggle for Ypres where Dooner was involved is below.
Ist Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Zandvoorde - 30th October 1914
The hard pressed units of the tiny British Expeditionary Force were being inched back along the Menin Road with their backs to Ypres - as the German pressure brought the Ist Battle of Ypres to a crescendo in the late days of October.
From Langemark in the north, to the Messines Ridge in the south the battles raged. The main weight of enemy numbers was employed abreast the Menin Road, however, it was here the Germans hoped the cracks would appear from the thin lines of defenders. At this point, the area responsibility belonged to the 7th Division and the 7th Cavalry Brigade who had taken up tactical positions on the sloping ground around Zandvoorde and the Gheluvelt Ridge. Both places gave valuable observation over the low ground leading to Menin.
Although the fighting was fierce, ground was reluctantly conceded because of the overwhelming numbers employed against them. At Zandvoorde, the Germans were almost frenzied in their efforts to break through, but here, the cavalrymen, used as dismounted infantry, and the Ist Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, under the control of Lt Col Henry Cadogan, barred the way. The cavalry lay just in front of the village, whilst the Welshmen were on their immediate left along the road which led to Gheluvelt.
Down to around 400 men after the recent hard fighting, the Royal Welsh stood firm even though the cavalry had been compelled to withdraw on their right. Even with an open flank, the welsh riflemen inflicted heavy losses on units of the 39th German Division who opposed them. By weight of numbers, however, the enemy carried out ole it hook attack around the side of a large farm to the front of the Royal Welsh, and taking advantage of the gap which now existen they infitrated thereist, and taking advantage G uhe which could inflict an enfilade fire from side and rear.
The action lasted most of the 30th October, and it was not until the eyes to that the battalion, nest o6 done, end vital time gained, received its eders to retire, and allow a support donnie to take the strain 1000 yards in the rear.
Only 90 survivors were found to reform next morning at Hooge. This gallant battalion had temporarily ceased to exist. Lt Col Cadogan, 7 officers cincluding A E C T Dooner) and 320 men were either killed, wounded of taken prisoner. (Lt Col Cadogan, his adj. Captain Dooner and his batman are buken Ride by side in Hooge Crater Cemetery.) This unit, later to find posterity in the writings of Siegfried Sassoon, and Robert Graves who were to join the regiment the following year, was regenerated from the 90 survivors of Zandvoorde, and would serve splendidly until the Armistice in November 1918, but unto this day, "Cheluvelt 1914" is displayed as a proud battle honour.
A good view of the actual ground can be seen from the Zandvoorde-Gheluvelt Road, and the slopes around the Cavalry Memorial and British Cemetery, where some of the Royal Welsh casualties can be found. The large farm which helped lead to their encirclement can still be seen to the front looking east.
In a book "The First Seven Divisions" it records the following about Dooner:
"Among those that fell on that day were Captain Barker, Col. Cadogan and his Adjutant, Capt Dooner. The latter was killed in a very gallant attempt to cross the interval which divided the trenches, and investigate the state of affairs on the right; and the Colonel fell in an equally gallant attempt to rescue his subordinate after he had fallen."
Although the story of Dooner is told above he was not the only OR to be killed in 1914, the 1914 Roll of Honour reads as follows:
Neville Linton Bridgland
Percival Stanley St John Barr
Eric Onslow Cruickshank
Alfred Edwin Claude Toke Dooner
Douglas Crosby Jones
Henry Bingham Whistler Smith-Rewse
George Lucas Stovin
It has given me great pleasure during the past two years to lay a wreath at Ypres each Remembrance Day on behalf of the Society to all those who have fallen, but last November it had just that little more significance. After the ceremonies at Ypres I then place the wreath on Dooner's grave which is situated just a short distance from Ypres near where he fell.
This article was written by Paul Foster, Secretary of The Western Pront Association, and himself an Old Roffensian.
The Battle of Gheluvelt (29th-31st October 1914)
The following is an extract from the Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Vol. III which gives a brief account of the action in mich Capt.Dooner was killed.
The German Fourth Army opened the battle at 6 a.m. 30th October on the left of the I Corps, about Zonnebeke, but the infantry advance was repulsed. Fabeck's (the German General) heavy guns opened on the 7th. Division and Illenby's Cavalry Corps at 6.45 a.m., and at 8 o'clock the infantry advanced. Our 1st Battalion, a little over 400 strong, was scattered about in short slits of trenches, without inter-communication, on the forward slope of a roll in the plain; their field of vision was short in the midst of the hedge-enclosed fields, and it was impossible to know what was happening to the right or the left. But the advancing lines of German infantry were nowed down by their rifle fire.
On their right a disastrous situation arose.
The Cavalry Corps held a wide front. Immediately on the right of our first Battalion were the 1st and 2nd Life Guards, in alternate squadrons. The greater part of Fabeck's artillery bombardment was concentrated on them and the 1st Battalion. The cavalry suffered heavily, and when at 8 o'clock the German masses advanced in overwhelming numbers, the order was given them to retire on the support line. No news of this reached Brigadier-General lawford or anyone else. The right of the 7th Division was made aware of the presence of the enemy by enfilade fire from his field guns brought into Zandvoorde village.
Various bodies of troops were put in motion to restore the situation- the 6th Cavalry Brigade, the 2nd Gordon Highlanders, and the 1st Staffordshire; later on the 1st Northamptonshire, the 2nd Sussex and a detachment of Cavalry. But time had elapsed before the enemy was discovered, and our 1st Battalion, engaged by a frontal attack which was still being pressed by the enemy in spite of fearful slaughter in their ranks, were taken in reverse by parties of the enemy who had worked round the hedgerows above and behind them. At the same time the field batteries which had been brought into Zandvoorde opened on them a shower of shrapnel. Their situation was desperate.
Although the reinforcements sent up prevented a complete break-through, they could not save or relieve the 1st Battalion. With the attacking enemy On their front, his snipers to their rear, and his field batteries on their flank, post after post was wiped out. A few men joined the Scots Fusiliers, but this battalion and the Green Howards, now stood in an acute salient, almost Burrounded themselves, and were ordered to retire to a new line which had been formed.
Lieutent-Colonel Cadogan, his adjutant Ileutenant Dooner, Lieutenants Poole, Egerton. Wodehouse, Evans, and the Medical Officer (Captain Robertson) together with 320 other ranks had disappeared.
The story is told in a few words, but naturally the Battalion was not wiped out in so many minutes - sections fought It out - officers tried to Communicate and issue orders. There are however a few details. One 1s reported of Lieutenant Dooner, who delivered orders to some of the battalion himself and, returning, he too, fell. Lieutenant-Colonel Cadogan, seeing his adjutant hit, left the shelter of the trench and went to him; he,too, fell.
Capt. A. E. C. I. Dooner 18 buried in Hooge Crater Cemetery, Zillebeke, Belgium, Plot 9A, Row I, Grave 12. Zillebeke is a village about 3 Km. south-east of Ypres and Hooge Crater Cemetery lies to the north of the village on the south side of the road from Ypres to Menin.
The Toke Dooner grave at Ypres, showing the crest of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and the poppy wreath laid by a representative of the Old Roffensians Society on Remembrance Sunday 1984.
Lieut-Col. J. G. Dooner DSO, RA
John Graham Dooner was born On 29th March 1878. He became a Gentleman Cadet in September 1894 and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery as 2/Lieut. on 21st September 1896. Three years later he was promoted lieutenant and within two months was serving in South Africa, in what has become known as the Boer War.
He received the Queen's South Africa Medal with six clasps, and the King's South Africa Medal with two, and was twice mentioned in despatches.
Promoted captain in 1902 he eventually attended the staff course at the Staff College, Camberley and gained his p.s.c.
In September 1913 he was again promoted to major and became a General Staff Officer 3 Military Training. It has not been possible to obtain a full account of his war record 1914/18, but he was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in June 1917 and became G$01 34 Division on 30 April 1918.
The London Gazette published his award of the DSO on 3rd June 1918, but he was killed it Grand Rozoy, near Soissons, just over 1 month later, 31st July 1918. His other awards include the French Croix de Guerre.
He is buried at Paperie British Cemetery, Ville-Montoire, France, , Plot 44, Grave D, Row 10. Ville-Montoire is a village about 10 KM south of Soissons, a town on the River Aisne, 100 Km north-east of Paris. Raperie Cemetery lies a little to the south of Ville-Montoire.
From the notebooks ‘The Naval and Military Memorials of Rochester Cathedral’ (1979)
by Roy Trett, OBE, TD,
Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library
The medieval tombs of the Presbytery and Quire Transept have had a tortured history which many effigies apparently moved and several defaced along with the medieval memorials and brasses over the Early Modern period.
Rochester Cathedral features an exceptionally large collection of Colonial-era military memorials and artefacts. This series has begun to highlight the stories behind these collections and their place in our global heritage.
